Thursday, 30 April 2015

Another must-see attraction in Wellington last week was the wonderful display of a selection of Peter Jackson's WW1 vehicle fleet and their parade through the streets along with a cast of hundreds of people in period uniform and dress accompanied by marching bands and war veterans.

I had not realised before but as well as building amazing WW1 aircraft to exact specifications, The Vintage Aviator also builds WW1 vehicles - some refurbished and some scratchbuilt. They are just as impressive as the aircaft in their own way.

The parade formed up in the grounds of Parliament including this Dennis truck towing a field gun.

Here at the start of the parade, a General bus passes the Cenotaph war memorial.

This was originally cranked out as ZK-EMH and listed to NZAI on 21-11-1978.

It was re-registered as ZK-JAA on 06-04-1979 and joined James Aviation Ltd of Hamilton on 24-04-1979. In September of 1984 it went to D and M Starr of Dargaville and then to Super Air in mid October 2000.

Kaitaia had only the parked and covered Vans ZK-JRV.

With the rain set in there was just the single aircraft to be seen at Whangarei .

Piper PA-32-260 Cherokee Six ZK-NZA3 (32-402) was withdrawn and de-registered on 28-05-2014.

This is a 1966 model which arrived at Auckland on 24-05-1994 and continued to fly under is US registration N3518W until early 1996 when it became ZK-NOW.

It is with absolute sorrow that Flying NZ regrets to inform you that Jay Peters passed away peacefully after a short illness on Sunday 26th April.

Jay Peters as the CFI of the Canterbury Aero Club and a long term Member of the Flying NZ Instructor Council, serving as a Council Member and Chairman, was an inspirational leader of Flight Training in NZ. Jay was a loyal supporter of the Aero Club movement and a mentor to many young instructors.

He was coach of the Wings Team, Chief Air Judge at many Regional and National Competitions, and it was Jay's dedication to flight training that developed the very successful Instructor Council Seminars held at Ohakea over the years.

Jay's funeral will be held on Friday 1st May at 1100hrs at the Canterbury Aero Club.

Tuesday, 28 April 2015

The Vintage Aviator has changed the format of their shows this summer by attending large airshows such as Wings Over Wairarapa, Avalon and Classic Fighters, and in addition they have scheduled monthly open days at Hood Aerodrome, which are low key events that are also training days for their pilots.

When the April monthly open day was scheduled for Anzac Day, I reckoned that it would be worth attending and it surely was. The weather was brilliant and they also showed showed most of the new aircraft that they have registered, some of which I post below:

TVAL new build Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2c-1L ZK-CBE2 has now flown. It is painted in the colours of 16 Squadron and wears the serial number 2612. It is powered by a TVAL built RAF 1a V8 engine It is marked as a presentation aircraft from St Catherines Ontario and bears this inscription on the fuselage. The original 2612 was written off in June 1916. A stunning looking aircraft!

Another stunner was TVAL new build Sopwith Snipe 7F-1 ZK-SBY which has been around since early 2013 but this was the first time I had seen it. It is powered by a 230 HP Bently BR2 rotary engine and is presented as a late model Snipe marked up as E7643 from around 1919.

Hanriot HD 1 ZK-EAY2 was acquired from the RAF Museum in 2012 as a swap aircraft (along with a Farman F 40). It is powered by a 120 HP Le Rhone rotary engine. It has flown in New Zealand (in February 2014). It is marked in the colours of 1e Escadrille de Chaase, Belgian Flying Corps markings, based at Les Moores near La Panne in Belgium in September 1918.

De Havilland DH 5 replica ZK-JOQ2 was built in the US and is powered by an O-320 Lycoming engine. It is serialled as A9507 which was a presentation aircraft funded by subscription and collection by women of New South Wales, and is marked as the New South Wales No 14 Women's Battleplane and the original aircraft was with 2 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps.

Sopwith Triplane replica ZK-SOP was built in the US and is powered by a Warner radial engine. It is serialled as N533, the aircraft of Lt Raymond Collishaw of the RNAS, and is named Black Maria..

Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2f ZK-BFR has as its basis an original WW 1 aircraft and is marked in generic RFC colours with the serial A1325. It is powered by a RAF 1a V8 engine.

TVAL new build Albatros D II ZK-JNB3 is marked as D386/16 which was the aircraft of Hauptmann Oswald Boelcke of Jasta 2. It is powered by a 180 HP Mercedes DIII 6 cylinder in line engine.

ZK-DVA was the first TVAL new build Albatros D Va which has been followed by four other D Va's and the D II. It is marked as D5284/17 which was the aircraft of Major Josef Mai of Jasta 5 and is powered by a 180 HP Mrecedes DIIIau 6 cylinder in line engine.

Both of the Albatos's flew during the day, with wonderful deep growling engine notes.

And in the TVAL maintenance hangar were their original WW 1 Sopwith Camel ZK-SDL and their latest creation - the BE 12 ZK-ZEP.....

A trip to Wellington last week provided an amazing kaliedoscope of World War 1 remembrance experiences - the parade of Peter Jackson's WW 1 vehicles through the streets of Wellington from Parliament Grounds to the new WW 1 Pukeahu Memorial Park, with a flyover of three WW 1 biplanes (a DH 5 and two SE 5As), a visit to the Sir Peter Jackson Great War Exhibition, the Anzac Day dawn service and The Vintage Aviator Anzac Day open day at Masterton, all held in wonderful weather.

The Sir Peter Jackson exhibition contains some aircraft displays (no surprises there) including this aircraft which I understand is a Maurice Farman Type MF 11bis in Belgian Air Force markings.

I did know that The Vintage Aviator had such an aircraft (actually a Henri Farman F40), which was swapped from the RAF Museum in the UK. However I understand that the display aircraft is a non flying replica that has been made at the TVAL workshops in Wellington. Can anyone confirm any further details of these aircraft?

And in another area of the exhibition is this wing which I think is the top wing of an Albatros D VA. As can be seen there are also aircraft paintings in this area. The gun in the foreground is a model of a large gun from a battleship that was mounted on railway bogies and is painted in an accurate bright camoflague scheme. However the gun suffered from several deficiencies in that it could only fire in the fixed direction of the railway track, and when it was fired, the recoil blew the whole lot off the tracks!

Yet another identity change to report, this time its Cessna 421C ZK-MFT changing ownership from Skyline Aviation to the Taranaki Air Ambulance Trust and becoming ZK-TAM/2.

The Golden Eagle was imported to NZ for Skyline Aviation in 2004 and as N9501L it ferried from Nut Tree, Vacaville, California to Honolulu on 06 April then onto Christmas Island, Pago Pago and Auckland arriving 08 April. It then flew to Hamilton 13 April for certification work before entry to service with the Napier based air ambulance and charter operator.

Again, thanks to Blue Bus who advises this is the second use of the registration ZK-TAM - the first was applied to a Cessna U206F from November 1992 until November 2014 when it was re-registered ZK-RPM.

The Taranaki Air Ambulance had in April 2014 signaled a strong desire to acquire a Pilatus PC12 to replace their ageing PA31 ZK-MJF however the arrival of the Golden Eagle will have no doubt put this plan on the back burner:

Above is the Frank Barker Zenair CH701 STOL ZK-NVY (c/n 5770) just back from its Friday foray.

The Aero Gare Sea Hawk ZK-SEA (c/n AACA/175) has finally made a move and appears to be getting readied for flight.
Below is a grotty pic of the pending ZK-UFO2. An ex Australian Airborne Edge 582 with a Streak II Wing.

Following the theme of aircraft assuming new identities, Boeing Stearman E75 ZK-JID has recently changed ownership and with it identity to become ZK-BOE/2 from 19 March 2015. Thanks to Blue Bus we know this Stearman arrived in NZ during late 1982 flying under its previous FAA marks of N4036. It subsequently ended up in storage at Ardmore for a time before being registered ZK-JID to Pacific Southwest ltd (Len and Wendy Cowper) in December 1998. It was listed with White Island Airways for the best part of a year from late 1999 - did it operate from Whakatane?

For those interested, the first use of ZK-BOE was on the side of a 1959 Fletcher FU24.

As noted 09 March 2015.

And again on 31 March 2015 now registered ZK-BOE but no visible registration marks.

Aptly described by Agairnz in a post last year as "scruffy", Eurocopter AS350BA ZK-IFX is seen here outside the registered owner's facility at Ardmore earlier this month with no change to its appearance since first blogged back in December 2014 - here

At was a beautiful morning at Rangitata Island to start with but the North wind increased through the later part of the morning to become very uncomfortable so restricted the number of light aircraft flying in.

Over a hundred people at the service.

The local ATC led the way from the service area to the wreath laying at the cairn in the Brodie's garden.